Especially in the modern era, if a video game performs well critically and commercially, it’s most likely going to get a sequel. Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been true. Sometimes developers have a hit but don’t have a great idea for how to take it to the next level. Other times, funding gets in the way, and the studio has to shut down a project. Regardless, many games have given players one exceptional experience and nothing else. A few of those games stand out as ones that truly deserve a follow-up. They’ll probably never happen, but that doesn’t mean fans can’t dream.
Here are four cult classic games that should get a sequel as soon as possible.
Black was a bit of a unicorn when it launched in 2006. At that point (and even today), putting out a new first-person shooter without a multiplayer component was a confounding choice for many players and reviewers, but the developers at Criterion Games weren’t trying to make the next Halo.
Instead, the team wanted to focus on destructible environments and cinema-inspired sound quality. In that respect, the team absolutely delivered. Black isn’t very long, but you feel like you’re playing through a summer blockbuster. The battles are intense, the bullets are constantly flying, and everything sounds incredible.
Unfortunately, Criterion never got to make the sequel it was planning. EA scrapped it relatively early on, and Criterion moved on to Burnout Paradise. Many of the developers would later work on a spiritual sequel called Bodycount, but that game failed to live up to the exceptional first game.
BioWare was in the middle of its best era when it dropped Jade Empire. The 2005 game launched between Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. As expected, Jade Empire performed well critically and commercially, but two years later, BioWare’s staff announced that a second game wasn’t in the plans.
Later, BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk said Jade Empire is a game they’re “passionate about” and were “looking for the right way to deploy” the IP. Unfortunately, nothing has come from those quotes in more than a decade. Obviously, BioWare has been busy with the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, but a new Jade Empire might be the shot in the arm the developer needs.
Rockstar’s Bully is one of the best games the famed developer has ever released. The open-world private school adventure took the Grand Theft Auto formula and put it in a captivating new setting. And like every game on this list, Bully was a hit critically and commercially, even getting a remaster to bring it up to modern standards.
Still, Rockstar scrapped the in-development Bully 2 around 2010. Since then, the developer has publicly said it has “ideas” for a sequel, but we haven’t heard anything concrete. It’s possible Rockstar finally goes back to the well after releasing Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2026, but either way, we’ll be waiting until well into the 2030s before we see it.
You’ve probably noticed that every game on this list had a sequel in development that’s been cancelled. That’s still true for the exceptional Sleeping Dogs, which actually has a cancelled sequel and spin-off, but Square Enix has taken it one step further with this.
Sleeping Dogs has an in-production film adaptation that reportedly finished its first script draft in October 2025. Considering Sleeping Dogs 2 and the spin-off Triad Wars were both scrapped, it’s hard to imagine a film project that’s been rumored since 2017 is actually going to happen, but things are starting to crystallize.
If the movie does happen, it’d be a great time to announce a sequel. Unfortunately, developer United Front Games was shuttered several years ago, so they wouldn’t be able to get the team on a sequel project, but Sleeping Dogs is a game that’s begging for more. Hopefully, we’ll get it someday.
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